Leader of the House of Lords

House of Lords: Prayer

Lord Storey: To ask the Leader of the House when revising the process for prayers was last considered, and what consideration has been given to including an opportunity for additional prayers following a national or international tragedy or disaster.

Baroness Stowell of Beeston: The process for prayers was last considered by the Procedure Committee in December 2012 (3rd Report, Session 2012-13, HL Paper 81). Any change to the present arrangements would be a matter for the Procedure Committee, in consultation with the Lords Spiritual.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Cost Effectiveness

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the Spending Review 2015, where they expect the majority of the FCO efficiency savings of £53 million by 2019–20 will be made.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns: Efficiency savings of £53 million by 2019-20 will be delivered, in part, through reducing the running costs of our global network and the use of improved technology. There will also be reductions to the non-Official Development Assistance funding for the British Council, although overall funding for the British Council will be protected in real terms.

Ministry of Defence

Navy: Disciplinary Proceedings

Lord Burnett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many complaints have been raised, and disciplinary proceedings brought, annually over the last 20 years involving the interaction between men and women serving on Royal Navy warships and submarines.

Lord Burnett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many complaints have been raised, and disciplinary proceedings brought, in each of the last 10 years involving the interaction between men and women serving in the Royal Navy.

Lord Burnett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many complaints have been raised, and disciplinary proceedings brought, in each of the last 10 years involving the interaction between men and women serving in the army.

Lord Burnett: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many complaints have been raised, and disciplinary proceedings brought, in each of the last 10 years involving the interaction between men and women serving in the Royal Air Force.

Earl Howe: This information is not held in the format requested.

Aircraft Carriers

Lord West of Spithead: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 18 December (HL4511), whether the Queen Elizabeth class will always deploy with its fully integrated defence capability.

Earl Howe: The defence capability employed to protect the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers will be dependent on a variety of factors such as, but not limited to, the specific task, whether it is a national or coalition commitment, threat levels and theatre of operations.

Aircraft Carriers: Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft

Lord West of Spithead: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 18 December (HL4510), whether the Sea Lightnings carried aboard the Queen Elizabeth class will be a fully integrated part of the carrier battle group defence capability, as well as its long-range strike force.

Earl Howe: The Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers will be protected by a layered defence, the composition of which will be tailored to the threat faced. This defence may include, but not be limited to, submarines and ships within the Maritime Task Group (including their embarked Lightning II aircraft, helicopters and unmanned air systems) as well as land-based aircraft, where applicable.

Department for Communities and Local Government

Social Services: Finance

Lord Warner: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what additional income for spending on adult care will be available to each authority with adult social care functions if each of those authorities increases their precept by two per cent in each year from 2016–17 to 2019–20 inclusive, with no change to their baseline forecast spend for 2015–16.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: The Government announced on 17 December 2015, Official Report, Column 2238-2241, that Local Authorities with social care responsibilities will be able to increase their council tax by up to 2% above the core referendum principles of 2% (4% in total) which is expected to raise an extra £2billion by 2019/20. A breakdown of the £2billion, by how much individual local authorities could raise, has been made and can be viewed at the following link or in the attached document.https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486708/Core_spending_power_supporting_information.xlsx



Supporting Table
(Excel SpreadSheet, 381.72 KB)

Affordable Housing: Finance

Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Spending Review announcements on funding for affordable housing and the forecast £1 billion remaining in the 2015–18 Affordable Homes Programme will mean the continuation of availability of grant to complete pipeline projects by Community Land Trusts and community-led housing providers, including for rental homes.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: The Government will honour all existing funding commitments to all schemes which have been allocated funding through the 2015-18 Affordable Homes Programme. This will include any schemes led by Community Land Trusts and community-led housing providers

Homelessness: Finance

Baroness King of Bow: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the announcement in the Autumn Statement, what level of funding will be made available to local authorities in 2017–18 to replace the management fee currently paid for each homeless household in temporary accommodation.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: The Spending Review and Autumn Statement announced that funding of the Temporary Accommodation management fee will be devolved to local authorities from 2017/18, giving them more freedom and flexibility in how they use this funding. Current levels of funding will be maintained and, in addition, councils will receive £10 million a year more. The Department for Communities and Local Government will set out the precise detail of how the new funding will be distributed in 2016/17. The Department will work closely with local authorities and other partners to ensure that funding will be allocated in a way that helps councils tackle homelessness.

Circle Housing

Baroness King of Bow: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 8 December (HL4002), whether the Social Housing Regulator identified the absence of any residents on the Management Board of Circle Housing Group as being a contributory factor in that organisation’s failure to manage properly its repairs and maintenance service, and if so, what action the regulator has required in this regard.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: The rationale for the Social Housing Regulator’s decision to downgrade Circle from G1 to G3 is set out in its published narrative judgement (attached). This is available at:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/420527/Circle_Anglia_Limited_RJ.pdfWhere a provider is not compliant with a regulatory standard, the Social Housing Regulator’s judgement focuses on the outcome that constitutes a breach of the standard. As an independent organisation, it is for the board of the registered provider to address the causes of the breach in order to ensure that it returns to compliance with the standard.



HCA Regulatory Judgement on Circle Anglia Limited
(Excel SpreadSheet, 381.72 KB)

HM Treasury

Regional Planning and Development: North of England

Lord Greaves: To ask Her Majesty’s Government which of their funding programmes are included within the Northern Powerhouse concept; and what is the estimate of the amount that will be spent by each department, and on what projects, in the current year and next.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: Our Northern Powerhouse initiative aims to redress the imbalance between the North and the rest of the UK, and help the North in reaching its potential through investing across a wide range of areas. This includes spending £13 billion on transport, £46 billion on schools, and £150 billion on health in the North of England over the course of the next Spending Review period.

Bank Services: Proof of Identity

Lord Greaves: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007, a Parliamentary pass should be accepted as photo-identity evidence for the purposes of opening a bank account, becoming a signatory to a bank account, and similar actions; and if not why not.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: The Government's Anti-Money Laundering regime has a clear aim: to make the UK financial system a hostile environment for illicit finances, whilst minimising the burden on legitimate businesses and reducing the overall burden of regulation.Under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007, customers opening a bank account must satisfy the relevant financial institution as to their identity. Financial institutions are also required to maintain appropriate records and conduct ongoing monitoring of the business relationship. The Regulations do not prescribe that customers must produce particular documents such as a driving licence or passport, or indeed a Parliamentary pass.Professional bodies such as the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG, a finance, trade and banking industry consortium), issue detailed operational guidance to their members about how the Regulations should be applied in practice, which is available on their website. The JMLSG guidance encourages businesses to consider a wide range of reliable documentation that customers can produce for customer due diligence purposes. Each business will however have their own policies in relation to customer due diligence checks. The Regulations require businesses to be proportionate in the checks they carry out, so that they safeguard against the potential risks but the process is not unnecessarily burdensome for the customer.

Cabinet Office

Civil Servants: Training

Lord Norton of Louth: To ask Her Majesty’s Government which minister is the lead minister in ensuring that departments comply with section 3(6) of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.

Lord Bridges of Headley: Section 3(6) of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act is a requirement of the Civil Service Code. It is for individual Ministers and their Permanent Secretaries to account for civil servants’ compliance with the Code.

Department of Health

Alcoholic Drinks: Consumption

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 17 September (HL2043), when they expect to publish updated guidelines relating to lower-risk drinking.

Lord Prior of Brampton: The Chief Medical Officer, with advice from a group of independent experts, has reviewed current drinking guidelines. The proposals will be published shortly.

Care Homes

Lord Warner: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 19 November (HL3562), in the absence of centrally collected data on the occupancy levels of registered care homes, on what data the Care Quality Commission relies to discharge its oversight function for the publicly-funded nursing and residential care sectors.

Lord Prior of Brampton: The purpose of market oversight, amongst other things, is to protect people who may be placed in vulnerable circumstances due to the failure of a ‘difficult to replace’ adult social care provider. It does this by monitoring in arrears the quarterly financial returns of those providers captured by the scheme. Since inclusion in the scheme is a reflection of provider size, by definition it is the larger providers that are captured by the scheme and as such market oversight is concerned with the overall consolidated financial performance. Consequently, it would not ordinarily consider occupancy levels for individual registered care homes.The types of information the Care Quality Commission collects from registered care providers as part of its Market Oversight Scheme is included in published guidance - Market Oversight of ‘difficult to replace’ providers of adult social care. The guidance is attached.



Market Oversight Guidance
(PDF Document, 2.48 MB)

Care Homes

Lord Warner: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 23 November (HL3565), what advice they will give to local authorities affected by significant withdrawal of residential care providers in particular areas from publicly-funded adult social care in the event that this prevents those authorities from stepping in to ensure people's needs.

Lord Prior of Brampton: The Government has worked with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and the Local Government Information Unit to publish guidance to support local authorities to develop effective contingency plans for provider failure- Care and Continuity: Contingency planning for provider failure. The guidance is attached.It is expected that local authorities will keep these plans under review and update them as necessary to reflect current market conditions and risks.Should there be a significant withdrawal of residential care providers from the publically funded adult social care market putting pressure on local authorities’ capacity to discharge their statutory functions in the short-term, the Government will work with the sector to develop bespoke contingency plans to support local government to manage the situation. This could include supporting work with neighbouring local authorities and ADASS regional networks.More widely, the Government will continue to support local authorities to discharge their functions under the Care Act 2014 which require them to shape a sustainable market that meets the needs of their local population.



Contingency Planning for Provider Failure
(PDF Document, 1.43 MB)

Social Services

Lord Warner: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment the Department of Health or NHS England has made of the risk of the wide-scale withdrawal of adult social care providers from publicly-funded social care markets and the implications of such a withdrawal for the NHS; and whether such a possible withdrawal features on the Department of Health risk register.

Lord Prior of Brampton: The Department monitors a number of risks to the health and social care system through its high level risk register, including the availability of good quality adult social care that is affordable for local authority and National Health Service commissioners.The Department is working with local authorities, NHS England, the Care Quality Commission and the provider sector to understand the extent of this risk and its potential drivers, which will include consideration of the extent to which some providers are possibly withdrawing from the publically funded adult social care market.The Care Act (2014) places duties on local authorities to step in and ensure people’s needs continue to be met if a provider fails financially and services cease. The Department has worked with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Information Unit to publish guidance to support local authorities develop effective contingency plans for provider failure - Care and Continuity: Contingency planning for provider failure. The guidance is attached. The guidance recommends that contingency plans are co-produced with relevant partners, including NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups to ensure these plans are aligned.Local authorities routinely manage market exits in their area and discharge their Care Act duties. If a situation arose that local authorities found challenging, for example because of its scale and the lack of spare capacity in the area, the Department would work with partners to support them.



Contingency Planning for Provider Failure
(PDF Document, 1.43 MB)

Learning Disability

Baroness Hollins: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of Mazars' report investigating unexpected deaths at Southern Healthcare, they intend to establish a national review into premature deaths for people with mental illness, in addition to those with learning disabilities.

Lord Prior of Brampton: Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010 requires registered mental health providers to notify the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about deaths of people detained or liable to be detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. In addition, the CQC monitors data provided by the Health and Social Care Information Centre through the Mental Health Minimum Data Set on deaths of mental health hospital patients.The CQC will be undertaking a wider review into the investigation of deaths in a sample of all types of National Health Service trust (acute, mental health and community trusts) in different parts of the country. As part of this review, the CQC will assess whether opportunities for prevention of death have been missed, for example by late diagnosis of physical health problems.There are currently no plans to establish a national review into premature deaths of people with mental illness.

Biomedicines

Baroness Brinton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government which organisation has responsibility for ensuring implementation and compliance with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency guidance, which states that biologic medicines should be prescribed by brand name and tracked by batch number.

Lord Prior of Brampton: In 2008, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued best practice guidance on the prescribing of biological products. This advised:“All biosimilar products are prescription only medicines (POM). When prescribing biological products, it is good practice to use the brand name. This will ensure that automatic substitution of a biosimilar product does not occur when the medicine is dispensed by the pharmacist. Products (biosimilar and reference) that have the same international non-proprietary name (INN) are not to be presumed identical for the reasons given above.”The MHRA does not have responsibility for monitoring the compliance of healthcare professionals with its prescribing guidance. The responsibility for prescribing rests with the practitioner who has clinical responsibility for their patient's care and we would expect practitioners to take any relevant guidance into account when making their prescribing decisions. Practitioner professional bodies also have a role in setting out best practice to their members.